


we went through so much by ourselves;

by prouveyrac



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, a bounty hunt goes wrong for the reaper squad, kravitz ponders if there's a grim reaper for death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-13 15:15:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17490329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prouveyrac/pseuds/prouveyrac
Summary: And, suddenly, the thought of being alone in this cellar once again sent a spark of something so fearful through Kravitz that, no matter how much it hurt (and, fuck, did it hurt), his hand shot out and grabbed Taako’s wrist and, before he could really think about it, he was saying, “Please don’t let me be alone.”orA bounty hunt goes a bit awry and Kravitz doesn't realize how much he needs Taako in his life until Taako's there.(based off the tumblr dialogue prompts "Who did this?" and "Please don't let me be alone.")





	we went through so much by ourselves;

**Author's Note:**

> one day i'll learn how to properly title fics
> 
> tw(s): hurt/comfort with a happy end, talk of injuries/pain

It was all rather embarrassing, really, and Kravitz bet that, in just a couple hours, he would be laughing at this over a bottle of wine with Taako.

But it wasn’t a “couple hours” currently; currently, it was “now,” and “now” meant Kravitz trying to find the humor in this entire debacle while also trying to figure out two things: one, if Death could die, and, two, what would happen if he did. He didn’t think there was a grim reaper for Death. He knew that there were still some important people between him and the Raven Queen, but a grim reaper for the Grim Reaper seemed… redundant.

“Now” also consisted of being crumpled in the corner of some dingy basement, pain pulsing throughout his bones while, from a flight of stairs or two up, explosions from Lup and Barry’s own magic could be heard.

Kravitz found that the levels of pain neither bettered or worsened depending on whether he was in his skeletal form or not, so he decided that, if he was to die (which was still giving Kravitz a headache), he might as well look good while doing it.

They hadn’t expected this particular cult of necromancers to be that strong. It sounded like every other bounty they had ever been sent on when the Raven Queen first told them about it: necromancers harvesting energy from the dead to be used by themselves and achieve, perhaps, godhood or immortality or anything that fell into the category of “hubris.”

In hindsight, or perhaps in his waning grip on reality, he almost considered looking lighter on necromancers and liches, for Barry and Lup have proven to be wonderful people, but most people weren’t Barry and Lup.

Like this cult, for instance. A cult that somehow managed to conduct a ritual to start taking power from _the reapers sent to detain them_. It was almost too perfectly coincidental that Kravitz suspected that divination had to be at play here as well.

Which was delightful, truly. Necromancers who could also see possible futures. Fucking _terrific_.

Kravitz had gotten separated from Barry and Lup. Actually, last time Kravitz was with the other two, they had _all_  gotten separated from each other. They were outnumbered with at least four necromancers to a reaper which, again, wasn’t typically a problem, but this was proving to be an odd situation.

He last remembered Barry and Lup being dragged away, dragged apart, as he himself was taken this decrepit cellar. He was happy to know that they managed to escape their own rituals and find each other again.

The necromancers’ ritual was like a sphere of power; whoever was stuck inside began to have their life (or their essence) stripped from them. Kravitz managed to break out thanks to his scythe and, in a feat that some might call unbelievable (though Kravitz was just  _that_ good), take out his set of necromancers, but once they were all dead did Kravitz truly feel the effect of what they had done to him.

They had taken what was making him, well, him. He wasn’t alive, so it wasn’t like they took his life source, but what kept him… living in death was weakened, and whatever power he exerted to fight off the necromancers just made it worse.

Thus, Kravitz found himself pathetically slumped in the cellar. This problem, technically, could be fixed. The Raven Queen could restore him. He just had to get out in time.

And, listening to the explosions upstairs only continue to rage on, the chances of that happening weren’t quite on his side. Which was disappointing. Kravitz did enjoy a good game of wagering bets and chances, but not when the odds were so… morbid.

Which was quite an ironic thing for Death to think, but wasn’t this whole situation ironic, in a way?

Time passed and, in his state, it felt like hours, but Kravitz was a smart man. In his state, he didn’t have hours, so it only had to be minutes. Maybe five. Maybe ten. Definitely not twenty. Lup and Barry would both give each other too much shit if it took them that long to be rid of a bounty, difficult or not.

A non-specific-but-probably-less-than-twenty-minutes amount of time passed and, from upstairs, Kravitz suddenly heard a tear in the rift of their reality, followed by less explosions, as if half the necromancers had been downed and there was now only one other reaper present.

And then, in front of Kravitz, a bright white tear ripped through the center of the room and, as it opened, out stepped Lup dragging a dazed, only slightly panicked, Taako behind her. And then, when Taako’s eyes fell upon him, “slightly panicked” became “holy fuck what the fuck is fucking happening” and Kravitz felt, well, _guilty_. It wasn’t like he meant to get this fucked, but he still didn’t want Taako worrying about him.

“He was freaking out over my stone of farspeech that we weren’t with you-” Lup rushed out, jutting a finger at Taako. Studying her, Kravitz realized that she didn’t look too pleased with his current state either. “So he’s here now. Barry and I are almost done with the ones up there, so you two, uh, stay put, and we’ll be back in five to get you all good, cool?”

“Extremely,” Kravitz said, forcing a smile. 

Lup, once again, cut through reality, and Kravitz heard another tear open up upstairs, followed by a muffled  _“oh shit, she’s back”_ from an unlucky necromancer.

Taako was already kneeling on the concrete floor next to him, his hands ghosting over Kravitz as if he was scared to touch him. “Kravitz-”

Having Taako here, Kravitz felt simultaneously better and worse, happier and even more terrified. Like he could relax with Taako here while, in the same breath, be consumed by the grave reality (no pun intended) that faced him.

“Hello, darling,” Kravitz greeted quietly, weakly.

Taako swallowed thickly and his eyes flitted up to Kravitz’s face before back down his body, checking for wounds. “Who did this?”

Kravitz ran his eyes over the corpses around them. “Look around.”

Taako shook his head, wringing his shaking hands like he didn’t know what to do with them. “This is bullshit, absolute bullshit,” he rambled. “Like, you know that, right? Krav, love, my man, you know this is fucked, yeah? You- you three should take us with you! Like, yeah, we probably don’t want to do shit, but we’ll do it anyway, and-”

“And put you all in danger?” Kravitz asked, quirking an eyebrow. “No thank you.”

“We’ve been through worse!” Taako exclaimed, his voice suddenly loud and forceful and- and the _panic_  in Taako’s voice almost did Kravitz in for.

He had yet to come to the conclusion as to whether or not Death could actually die. Honestly, most signs pointed to no. If anything, his soul would just end up back in the Astral Plane and the Raven Queen would have to come and fish him out and it would all be quite embarrassing. He would probably get a good reprimanding for it, too.

But seeing Taako like this, so close to him and his hands shaking because he’s  _scared_  of hurting Kravitz, willingly walking into the base of a necromantic cult because he’s  _worried_ about Kravitz… it felt like it might kill him.

“I’m going to be okay,” Kravitz whispered, and he hoped with everything he had left that he was telling the truth. 

Taako took a hard look at Kravitz’s face, worrying his bottom lip, and finally,  _finally_ , laid a hand on Kravitz. He gently, carefully, cupped Kravitz’s face, and the sharp breath he took couldn’t be missed. “You’re cold.” Taako’s voice barely reached between the two of them.

“I’m going to be okay, Taako,” Kravitz repeated, more forceful this time, and now it felt more like a reassurance to himself than anything.  _That_ was what Kravitz was feeling. Throughout the pain and the exhaustion, there was this heaviness, this heaviness that somehow felt so empty, and  _of course_ this was how it played out. He had lost parts of him, parts of him that made him feel so alive, and he was closer to death than he had been in a long time.

Another explosion upstairs. The fighting was quieting down, but it wasn’t yet finished, and Taako looked up like he was trying to see through the ceiling into the chambers above.

“I- I could help them,” he said, his words coming out jumbled and nervous. “We’ll finish them off and then we can help you and-”

And, suddenly, the thought of being alone in this cellar once again sent a spark of something so fearful through Kravitz that, no matter how much it hurt (and, fuck, did it hurt), his hand shot out and grabbed Taako’s wrist and, before he could really think about it, he was saying, “Please don’t let me be alone.”

And, right after, Kravitz actually felt quite pathetic. Kravitz spent most of his afterlife alone. He died a young man in his thirties, and then spent the next couple centuries as Death on his own. He was alone, yes, but he never considered himself lonely. He lived an afterlife so exhillirating that, even if the only other being he consistently came into contact with was the Raven Queen, it was fine.

And then he had a boyfriend and an eccentric pair of coworkers and friends that he hoped lived long, happy, fulfilling lives and, all of a sudden, “being alone” seemed terrifying.

Taako looked back down to him, his mouth slightly agape, and, eyes meeting, they shared between them an understanding.

They had both lived such lonely lives that deserved no repeating.

“Okay,” Taako said, nodding. Nodding a lot. “Okay, yeah, of course, Krav, I’ll stay right here.” Another explosion, and a holler from the two other reapers could be heard. “It sounds like they’ve got it taken care of, anyway.”

Kravitz nodded despite the headache, and pulled his hand back despite the pain that jolted through him again. Taako, who must have seen him wince, frowned. He leaned in and, when his lips were ghosting over Kravitz’s forehead, he whispered, “Is this okay?”

“Please,” Kravitz said, and Taako pressed a soft kiss to his forehead.

“You’ll be okay.”

“Yeah.”

“Besides, you look too good to die in a shitty basement. This would be a bullshit way to go.”

Kravitz laughed, and it was tired and quiet, but it still stirred something warm in him. “That would be a fun way to cheat death, yeah?”

“Yeah, and- wait, do you, Death, have a grim reaper?”

“You know, I was wondering the same thing.”

* * *

 

“But, Taako, _listen_ ,” Lup said for about the fifteenth time the next night, tilting her wine glass in her hand. “We didn’t expect these guys to be so fucking strapped!”

“Yeah, usually our hunts aren’t all that difficult,” Barry, leaning back in his chair, added on. “Like, what was it that one time, with the pirates? We took down, like, a couple ships, yeah? There was  _maybe_  twenty people yesterday.”

“And they had us pretty fucked,” Kravitz said, an arm slung around Taako’s shoulder, their chairs pushed together.

“Well, _I’ll_ say,” Taako said, taking a sip from his own glass. “I show up to the scene and Krav looks like he’s one magic missile away from hanging out with Magic Brian and Jenkins and Barbara and _everyone else_  that we’ve killed.”

“Which is a lot,” Kravitz interjected.

“The rituals they had going were fucked, too,” Lup said. “Like, I’ve obviously seen and dabbled with some necromancy in my youth-” Kravitz scoffed “-but this was some next level shit.”

“Still, it would’ve been cool to study-”

Kravitz pointed a finger at Barry. “Listen, Bluejeans, no magic that almost kills me is  _cool_.”

Lup smirked at her husband over the rim of her glass. “Yeah, come on, Barold, get your shit together.” She took a sip. “Hey, if you did kick it, is there a grim reaper for you?”

“That’s what I asked!” Taako exclaimed over Kravitz’s own exclamation of, “Fuck if I know!”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!!! :)
> 
> ohsweetflips.tumblr.com feel free to send me taz balance and taz amnesty prompts!!!


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